Tahlequah PD train for 'active shooter' at elementary school

Law enforcement officials with the Tahlequah Police Department participated in an active shooter training at Heritage Elementary School Tuesday, July 16.

Police Chief Nate King said the training was geared toward the initial response and preparedness of law enforcement should there be reports of an active shooting at a school.

“It’s a little more force-on-force whereas the training at the hospital was just one encounter with the [shooter] and then it’s done for the day because you put so much into it. This one was on a smaller scale, we can run multiple people through a shooting scenario,” he said.

King was referring to the full-scale active shooter drills that were held at Heritage Elementary School in 2019, the Northeastern Health System Human Resources building in 2022, and the NHS Medical Park in 2023.

“An active shooter situation is probably one of the most likely situations when an officer is going to get shot because it’s a situation where we can’t just hide and wait. We have to go because our victims in an active shooting are defenseless, they’re kids,” he said.

The goal of Tuesday’s training was for law enforcement to be better prepared for any scenario they come face-to-face with.

“We’re preparing for a shooting at a school or a public place, but at school is when you think of 'active shooter,'” he said.

Officers ran three different scenarios inside the school and King said one of those was a “Don’t shoot” circumstance.

“You still search, you don’t know but then when you get there, someone already has the [shooter] in custody so not all of the scenarios are just, ‘shoot them.’ We have to use our decision-making on whether to shoot or don’t shoot and we’re training on that as well,” King said.

Tuesday’s training included TPD officers, detectives, administrators, Preston Oosahwee with Cherokee Nation, and even King.

“In the end in Tahlequah, we have a shooting at a school and it’s going to happen during the day and realistically you’re going to have administration, investigators, and patrol all arriving at the same time. Odds are, I’ll be one of the first ones in the door and that’s why we’re training with different shifts,” he said.

The police chief said he was pleased with the training and its turnout, and there was a lot of information each and every officer took away.

“We had fun but at the same time, there was a lot of learning that went on and some rust that was knocked off probably for some of us, myself included,” King said.